The World of Aviation

Philippine Airlines will increase its flights to Australia from five to seven flights per week from October 28, the airline has announced. The airline will discontinue its current triangular services from Manila to Sydney and Melbourne in favour of direct flights between the Philippine capital and Australia’s two largest cities. Sydney flights will operate on

Cobham Aviation has won a two-year fly-in fly-out contract to transport Xstrata Nickle Australasia employees to a remote gravel airstrip at the Cosmos Nickel Mine in WA. The contract utilises Cobham’s recently introduced BAe 146-100 jets fitted with special ‘gravel kits’ giving the jets the capability to operate on rough airstrips. The kits include rubber

Air New Zealand will spend $100 million upgrading its fleet of Boeing 777-200ERs to match its newer long-haul aircraft. The carrier said its eight -200ERs, which entered service in 2005, will be upgraded starting in the second quarter of 2014 and should be complete within a year. The work will bring the -200ERs in line

Jetstar will add a ninth A320 aircraft to its New Zealand fleet as it boosts domestic and trans-Tasman capacity. The Qantas subsidiary said it will add up to 20 additional weekly flight between Wellington and Auckland and up to seven extra flights from Christchurch to Wellington and Auckland. An extra weekly flight from Queenstown to

Airbus has flagged an organisational overhaul meant to cut down on bureaucracy. The plan, which Airbus said was in line with its ‘2020 Vision’, will focus on “empowering multifunctional teams” at Airbus sites with engineering, procurement and quality control integrated at plant level. Airbus said all engineering teams will be regrouped under a single leadership.

Virgin Australia says its mobile boarding passes will work with the new iPhone’s Passbook app. The app, billed as a ‘digital wallet’ for storing such things as boarding passes, movie and event tickets and membership cards, will come integrated with the new iPhone 5, scheduled to go on sale Friday. The app will also be